On Hard Ball Friday, Woodward turned into anapologist and defended Novak in the Valeri Plame case while discussingJudith Miller. He says the case is a sham and Novak didn't know she wasan "operative," a code word to shield Novak and anyone else from anywrong doing. He specifically said that Novak ALWAYS uses the word"operative" to refer to anybody and everybody.

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Woodard also uses the word "intent" as a defense ofNovak which will expand to any government official that leaked theinformation. (We all know Robert's intent except Woodard apparently)

Talking Points Memo talks about Novak's role as the leaker:" A close look at the wording Novak used in his column and a careful reviewof previous Novak columns over the years shows he only ever uses theword 'operative' to refer to covert agents. And that's the word he usedto refer to Plame. So Novak knew she was covert. And that prettyclearly means his sources knew too. How else would he have found out?"

At TPMCafe,Josh uncovers the bogus claim about Robert Novak's use of the term"operative" and asks the question "why is Woodward shilling for him?"